Santhera Pharmaceuticals (Schweiz) AG in Pratteln

Beschreibung und Mehrwerte

Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company

Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SWX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on the discovery, development and marketing of small molecule pharmaceutical products for the treatment of severe neuromuscular diseases. Santhera’s vision is to become a leading specialty pharmaceutical company offering therapies for a number of indications in this area of high unmet medical need which includes many orphan indications with no current therapy.

Santhera currently has five clinical-stage development programs, three of which are investigating its lead compound, SNT-MC17 (INN: idebenone), in the treatment of Friedreich’s Ataxia (FRDA), Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON). Another clinical program is investigating JP- 1730 (INN: fipamezole) for the treatment of Dyskinesia in Parkinson’s Disease (DPD) in cooperation with Juvantia, the compound’s owner. The fifth program comprises SNT-317 (INN: omigapil) in Congenital Muscular Dystrophies (CMD), a compound in-licensed from Novartis.

Santhera’s first product, SNT-MC17 (INN: idebenone) has received a marketing approval with conditions from Health Canada to treat Friedreich’s Ataxia and will be marketed under its brand name Catena. The product is also under review by health authorities in the EU and in Switzerland for the same indication, while in the United States a pivotal phase III trial is recruiting patients. SNT- MC17 has recently shown efficacy as a potential treatment in DMD, the compound's second indication.